Congress must act on gun regulations

Reasonable people in Washington and around the country entered the gun debate three months ago with pragmatism and hope. We said we would respect the Second Amendment and the right to own firearms, push for universal background checks, which are supported by over 85 percent of Americans in every major poll, and take steps to avoid needless bloodshed by regulating our firearms — something we do already for vehicles, controlled substances, and other instruments that may cause grave harm.

But in return, we have been greeted on the other side by fantastic, “slippery slope” arguments from the gun lobby and conspiratorial talk of government takeovers. The banning of certain military-style assault weapons is the first step toward government confiscation of all guns, they say.

We, the liberals, are using children (especially the slaughtering of 20 of them in Newton, Conn.) to “gin up” fear and push our agenda.

Is this the democratic process envisioned in the halls of Philadelphia more than 200 years ago?

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One side seems willing to give-and-take, while the other side appears mired in lunacy. I sometimes feel like we are debating Mel Gibson in the movie “Conspiracy Theory.”

Society would come screeching to a halt if we feared our neighbors’ true intentions to this degree in everyday political decisions. For example, did you know? ...

• Your local township’s rezoning measure to allow for a community center could just be the first step toward its endorsement of socialism.

• The Red Cross distributed water after Hurricane Sandy, not to relieve the thirsty and distraught, but as the first move to take over Poland Springs and all major water bottling companies.

In closing, I hope one day in the halls of Congress and on the pages of American newspapers we can debate the merits of reasonable gun regulations. These distractions and fears add nothing to the debate. No truly free society should place anything, or any institution, in a “do not touch” zone. But that is what we are doing right now with firearms.

We can do better. It will require members of Congress to put the interests of the whole nation above a lobby and above the fears of re-election.